The Limbaugh Rule Rules the Day: It’s Washington vs. The Rest of Us

RUSH: Well, it looks like a lot of voters in Delaware employed the Limbaugh Rule. You got a conservative on the ballot you vote ‘yes,’ period.

Anyway, great to have you here. Rush Limbaugh, the EIB Network and the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies. Full three hours of broadcast excellence straightaway.

It’s a fun day; it’s an interesting day; it’s a great day, and it is shaping up here as what we’ve always known is going on. It’s Washington versus the country. It really is Washington versus the country. I can’t tell you, my e-mail started going nuts last night with Karl Rove appearing on Sean Hannity. If you didn’t hear it — and, by the way, a lot to say here and I’m going to try to keep it somewhat organized, but the brain neurons are firing all over the place here. Remember the argument was, ‘We gotta support Castle. We gotta support Castle because we need 51 seats in the Senate. It’s all that matters. We gotta get 51 seats. We gotta get the majority. We gotta get 51 seats.’ Okay, now we have a Republican Senate candidate in New Hampshire, and the 51-seat argument is gone?

Last night word got out the national Republican senatorial campaign wasn’t gonna fund her. They don’t like the Tea Party; don’t like Christine O’Donnell. ‘She’s on her own now. I mean, you gave her to us, you take care of her. She wants to get elected she can handle it herself.’ That’s what was coming out last night. Cornyn put out a statement saying, No, no, no, no, no, that’s not true. We congratulate Christine O’Donnell. ‘I personally as the committee’s chairman — strongly stand by all of our Republican nominees, including Christine O’Donnell in Delaware. I reached out to Christine this morning, and as I have conveyed to all of our nominees, I offered her my personal congratulations and let her know that she has our support. This support includes a check for $42,000 — the maximum allowable donation that we have provided to all of our nominees — which the NRSC will send to her campaign today.’

Now, last night they weren’t going to do this. Now, it’s not that they slept on it and they got over their mad. They know they’re facing an uprising. They know that if they don’t fund Christine O’Donnell they’re not going to get any money from anybody. But it doesn’t matter ’cause, my friends, if each of you just sent Christine O’Donnell a dollar, if each of you just sent every Tea Party candidate a dollar, we wouldn’t need the NRSC, we wouldn’t need the RNC, we wouldn’t need the Congressional Campaign Committee in the House for the Republicans, if you sent her a dollar. It’s up to you. I mean I’m not a fundraiser here. But it is interesting to watch all this play out, because the sides are definitely showing themselves now: Washington versus the rest of the country. But this argument going into the elections, ‘We gotta get 51 seats. Castle’s the only way. We gotta get 51 seats.’ Now they don’t care about having 51 seats. Now what difference does it make who’s in the 51st seat? Getting the majority is important. What does it matter? I mean they didn’t care that it was Castle in the seat. Now all of a sudden they care that it’s O’Donnell in the seat? Why? Because it’s Washington versus the rest of the country.

Here’s the audio sound bites of Rove last night. I watched it. I was saying to myself, ‘If he had just gotten this mad at Democrats during the Bush administration, why, who knows how things would be different today.’ Karl has admitted that one of his mistakes was not defending Bush against all these insane, stupid, slanderous, libelous attacks against Bush for eight years. But I’ve never heard Karl so animated against a Democrat as he was against Christine O’Donnell last night. He appeared with Hannity who said: ‘I think there’s a battle going on, what we define as the establishment, talking about Dana Perino and Stuart Varney that were on earlier in the show, those that are taking strong conservative views. I mean Mike Castle’s one of the seven or eight Republicans in the House that voted for cap and trade, he’s not pro-life. You have the establishment over the years, look who they’ve backed: Arlen Specter, Charlie Christ, Murkowski. They didn’t support Rand Paul, Sharron Angle. There seems to be a schism here, seems to be a divide.

ROVE: One thing that Christine O’Donnell is now going to have to answer in the general election that she didn’t in the primary is her own checkered background. I met her. I wasn’t, frankly, impressed as her, you know, abilities as a candidate. And again, these serious questions about how did she make her living? Why did she mislead voters about her college education? How come it took her nearly two decades to pay her college bills so she could get her college degree? How did she make a living?

RUSH: They never ask these questions about Democrats. Everybody I know that saw this were just perplexed, they couldn’t figure it out. What’s going on? Why is he so mad at a Republican? Where was this anger directed at a Democrat ever? And it continued. Hannity said, ‘I disagree, Karl. I don’t see it this way.’

ROVE: This was about Mike Castle’s bad votes. It does conservatives little good to support candidates who at the end of the day, while they may be conservative in their public statements, do not advance the characteristics of rectitude and truthfulness and sincerity and character that the voters are looking for. And we’ll see how she could answer these questions. I’m for the Republican, but we were looking at eight to nine seats in the Senate. We’re now looking at seven to eight. This is not a race we’re going to be able to win.

RUSH: We’re gonna throw in the towel here? By the way, yesterday she was down 25. Today she’s down 16. In some polls she’s only down 11. She just needs to make up half of that. But why not fight for it? Why not fight for it? You know, Castle is okay as the 51st vote, but this woman isn’t with her character problems and her rectitude problems? For crying out loud, when did we ever hear about the character of Ted Kennedy? When do we ever hear about, for God’s sakes, the character of Barack Obama? He is destroying our country. Single-handedly and with the help of his party he is destroying the very job creation that leads to prosperity in this country. Joe Biden, our current vice president, is a known plagiarist. We’re talking about Christine O’Donnell’s baggage, where is this criticism of Democrats? Where has it been? What is so sacrosanct about showing respect to them and eating our own? And who’s to say that she can’t be the 51st seat? If 51 seats was really the objective, if getting that majority is really that important, then let’s go balls to the wall for Christine O’Donnell. But, no, no, no, we’re not going to do that because for some reason we don’t want Christine O’Donnell to be the 51st vote. Some Republicans do not want her to be the 51st vote.

So it’s Washington versus the country. Karl is talking about the rectitude of character when talking about the Biden seat? Can we talk about the character of Harry Reid and some land deals over the course of his time? For crying out loud, the rectitude of character, John Kerry? Yesterday we had Castle saying he talked to Lisa Murkowski in Alaska, and she said, ‘Beware of these people,’ meaning the Tea Party. ‘And it was really a shame. It was really, really a big shame out there because so many Democrat senators respected Lisa Murkowski.’ Is that our objective here? Charlie Rangel just won. He wins the nomination and the all-but-guaranteed seat which means that he, Charlie Rangel and his scandals will not go away. Pelosi will have either to drain the swamp or swamp the drain, one of the two things she’s going to have to do. Can we talking about rectitude of character for Charlie Rangel? The Republicans are training both barrels on Christine O’Donnell. You know, a lot of people over the years have been suspicious of the motivations of establishment Republicans, and it is becoming clear that those suspicions were valid. Here’s what Christine O’Donnell said today on Good Morning America. George Stephanopoulos said to her, ‘Karl Rove was on Fox News, very tough talking about your checkered background, saying some nutty things. Can you answer those questions?’

O’DONNELL: Everything that he’s saying is unfactual. He’s the same so-called political guru that predicted I wasn’t gonna win, and we won, and we won big. He’s eating some humble pie. My Republican opponent did not have a record to stand on. He supported the Democrats more than he supported the Republicans, and when we started gaining momentum and we started gaining credibility in this race, it made the Republican establishment look like lazy people who did not care about their principles. But I hope that we can put that behind this, because if they’re really serious about winning — I was ahead in the general election, according to Rasmussen before this Republican cannibalism started — so if they’re serious about winning, we could repair the damage done and move forward and that’s the challenge that I put out to them.

RUSH: That’s a legitimate question that she’s got, ‘If they’re serious about winning.’ I mean they couldn’t wait to win with Castle. And one thing Karl said last night on the Hannity show, he said, ‘Sean, you keep making my point. This election is all about Castle.’ Well, so? Castle is unqualified. He’s a fraud. He’s not a conservative. Mike Castle is not gonna lift one finger to reverse the direction this country’s headed. The vast majority of the American people want it reversed and yesterday, and they are going to support people who say they’re going to do this. They’ve been around long enough to learn that conservative rhetoric in a campaign isn’t enough anymore. They’re gonna look at voting records. I mean the same people that told us we had to support Crist said we had to go with Castle. The same people that said we had to support McCain, we have to support Castle. Every person they tell us we have to support is a dud, is a loser. They said Scott Brown doesn’t have a chance. Don’t waste any money on Scott Brown.

The same people that told us we had to go with Charlie Crist told us we had to go with Mike Castle. The same people told us we had to go with Arlen Specter told us we had to go with Mike Castle. The same people who told us we had to go with McCain told us we had to go with Mike Castle. The same people that told us we had to support Dede Scozzafava told us we had to support Mike Castle. The same people who told us that we have to love the two female RINOs in Maine told us we have to go with Mike Castle. The same people who told us, ‘Oh, it’s a shame that Chris Shays is out of there, we have to have Republicans in the northeast,’ told us we had to go with Mike Castle. As I said all along that what this is about is the Republicans, conservatives taking back the Republican Party. And that’s the process. Here’s the bottom line, folks. When they told us we had to support all these people, if they won, we did. When Specter won, we got in line, we were loyal. Okay, the party, the party. We supported somebody that opposed Specter, but Specter wins, we got in line. Now look at the petulant attitude, these people, ‘Well, screw you, Christine O’Donnell wins, she’s on her own, you’re on your own.’ So it’s always a one-way street.

Anyway, where’s the importance of party unity now? We keep talking about party unity up till this election. Now they don’t care about party unity. ‘Fifty-first vote. That’s all this election is about, Limbaugh, we gotta get the 51st vote. We gotta get control of the Senate. We know we’re going to get control of the House. We gotta get control of the Senate.’ Now all of a sudden they don’t care about it. The 51st vote might be Christine O’Donnell, so they don’t want to control the Senate. Where’s the big tent? They keep telling us we have to have a big tent. The Republican Party is going to have a big tent. Well, where is the tent? The tent has collapsed. The truth is there never was a tent. The media, ruling class always says Republicans can’t win. The only one they said that could win was McCain. Why listen to Democrats who say, ‘Hey, there’s something amiss here,’ whenever one of their candidates loses? They said Reagan couldn’t win. They said Reagan would be bad for the country. I’m talking about Republicans. Reagan would be bad for the party. The GOP establishment was never comfortable with Reagan, and even today when they praise Reagan you can sense it’s lip service. They think they have to. But Reagan was as big a dunce as they think I am.

So Castle, who’s whole career was based on conservatives holding their nose and voting for the guy. I mean, we had to. ‘Well, he’s northeast, that’s the best we can do, Rush, Mike Castle is it.’ We had to hold our nose. Now Castle says he won’t support O’Donnell. So big tent, party unity, establishment guys are training their guns on Christine O’Donnell. Interesting to see. But they know they face a revolt now. Cornyn, the Republican Senate campaign, I imagine when the word went out last night — I mean Cornyn is from Texas — I imagine what happened when the word went out last night, whether it was accurate or not, the word was out that the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee was not going to fund her. (laughing) In Texas? (laughing) I’ll bet you the people that work for Cornyn heard about that. I’ll bet Cornyn got some e-mails. McConnell’s getting some e-mails. Anyway, brief time-out here, folks. We’ll get to your comments on all this as well as we dig deeper, uncover what this is really all about, which we all know.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You know, it’s such a shame today. It’s such a shame that Harry Reid can’t call Mike Castle and start asking him to switch parties like he did with Jumpin’ Jim Jeffords and Arlen Specter. Christine O’Donnell, I like what I hear of this woman. She was on Fox &amp; Friends today. She was everywhere. She referred to Castle as ‘an Obama Republican.’ That’s exactly what he is, exactly what he was! He’s an Obama Republican. Christine O’Donnell came up with that, and according to all the Wizards of Smart on our side, it was Mike Castle — only Mike Castle! — that could beat the Democrat in November. By the way, this Democrat is a Marxist. I mean, there’s a joke going around that here’s a bearded Marxist or Marxist with a beard. He describes himself that way! This guy is a sitting duck.

They said only Mike Castle could beat this guy. Mike Castle couldn’t even beat a woman with all this character rectitude, all this baggage that has been labeled on her and dumped on her. Castle couldn’t even beat here and Castle is the guy that ran the negative campaign. Delaware’s not used to negative campaigns. You know what? When people hear Karl and others talk about whatever baggage Christine O’Donnell has, let me tell you people in Washington something. Everybody in the country thinks all of you are corrupt! So Mike Castle is not innocent. He’s not clean and pure as the wind-driven snow. So when you Republicans start talking about all the baggage Christine O’Donnell has, you’re going to have to understand that voters around the country think all of you have baggage and voters around the country understand what it is to run up against a bureaucracy, a federal bureaucracy.

All these problems that she has, paying off loans and so forth? Who the hell doesn’t? Who the hell hasn’t had a run-in with the IRS? So she’s had a run-in with the IRS. That’s a resume enhancement to a lot of people! The government is the enemy here to a lot of people. The government needs to be downsized. The government’s too intrusive. The government is chipping away at personal liberty, private property rights and so forth. The people of this country do not view Washington as a way to promote politicians. It’s not a place where chairmanships are the reward. So Castle is going to run around and talk about baggage, and all these other Republicans want to recite the baggage that Christine O’Donnell has, fine and dandy. Let’s hear you talking about the baggage that Charlie Rangel has. Let’s hear you talk about the baggage that Harry Reid has or that any of these Democrats have, the baggage that Clinton had and has. Somehow it only disqualifies Christine O’Donnell? This is reminiscent of 1994 but in one distinct way: Voters are not gonna react all these charges of character rectitude because, in their minds, every politician’s got a character problem. It’s part and parcel of being one.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Mitt Romney has endorsed Christine O’Donnell. The day after the election, Mitt Romney has endorsed Christine O’Donnell. Now, we should point out Karl Rove — who you all loved. When he guest hosted this program, you loved Karl Rove. He is supporting Sharron Angle. There’s something in this O’Donnell business that we don’t know. There’s something there. Maybe Castle’s campaign manager is one of Rove’s best friends, I don’t know. I’m just throwing something up against the wall here, but, you know, campaign managers and consultants these people are thick as thieves like anybody in the same business. Who knows? There’s something about this race. I mean, Karl turned personal in ways he has never gotten before, with anybody. At the end of the day, though, we’re going to have one less RINO in Washington. It’s a great night! There’s one less RINO and before we’re through in November, there’s going to be a lot fewer RINOs there. I feel like George Patton, folks: I love the smell of battle out there! I can see the Carthaginians out there. The Limbaugh Rule. By the way, Arlen Specter has weighed in on the Limbaugh Rule.

(playing of Arlen Specter spoof)

RUSH: Arlen Specter on the Limbaugh Rule. This campaign is not about creating and saving Republican jobs. The Limbaugh Rule: If a conservative is on the ballot, you vote for him. Period. The Limbaugh Rule. It’s very simple. We are at a crossroads. You know, there’s a fork in the road up there, and you take the wrong direction, the country’s finished. I’m not stating this idly. I’m not being gratuitous in any way. I’m not exaggerating, and the American people know it. The American people fear for this country’s future, and if elected officials in the capital don’t see it — if they don’t see it that way, if they don’t understand the gravity of the situation — people’s lives are at stake here! People’s ability to earn a living is at stake here. The very essence of being an American, liberty and freedom, is at stake here.

We already are living a soft tyranny, and if anybody in Washington ostensibly on the Republican side does not understand this, they are gonna go! It’s not politics as usual. You know, party loyalty is not on the ballot here. America is on the ballot! People who are for it; people who are against it. People who are against it or who don’t realize the gravity of the future are going to dispatched. It’s really not complicated. It’s… I guess it is complicated if you live in Washington and that’s your world, and you don’t have interaction with anybody outside Washington except pollsters and other campaign consultants and news media types. I don’t say this lightly. I mean, this is not talk. By the way, I don’t say things I don’t believe or even exaggerate for the sake of being noticed or getting ratings or shocking people.

It’s been something I’ve format-wise, philosophically opposed ever since I started this kind of show. If I can’t back up what I actually believe, if it’s all phony and make believe, I’m not gonna go anywhere. I’m not going to have any credibility or loyalty with an audience. If I say it just to get noticed, say it just to shock people. When I say, ‘The American people fear for the future of their lives and the lives of their children and grandchildren,’ I am dead serious. I’m not exaggerating. And if Mike Castle doesn’t get that, he’s gone. This is where we are. And, by the way, I got a Stack of Stuff here. Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post, ohhhh, this is so bad. This is so bad! She claims she doesn’t care about whether the Democrats have a majority or hold onto their majority. It’s not that, but, boy, we need more moderate Republicans in the Senate and in the House if we’re going to have any hope of everybody getting along, and this is just so bad to get rid of somebody like Mike Castle that everybody can get along with.

I’m listening to all these people on the cable channels of the left, and they’re talking about, ‘Oh, man, this was exactly what we wanted: the Republican Party with an internecine war. The Republican Party splitting up, the Republican Party at war with itself.’ I am not seeing a party atmosphere among Democrats. I’m not seeing all this celebration that we’re being told is taking place. I don’t see all this ebullience. I don’t see all this happiness that we’re told exists within Democrat circles ’cause of what’s happening with the Tea Party. All these Tea Party candidates are winning. This guy that beat Lazio in New York? I can’t wait to see this guy debate Cuomo. You know, Andrew Cooomo is going to have to debate this guy. I can’t wait to see that. That’s going to be national television. Ha! That I can’t wait to see.

And I don’t see all these parties. I don’t see the party atmosphere among Democrats today or last night, after all these Tea Party candidate victories. You know, the Tea Party’s ascension is supposed to save the Democrats. I mean, that’s the template. That’s what we’re being told by the partisan political operative media. That’s a ‘strategery’ that’s being advanced out there. So how come you don’t see a lot of smiles on the faces of people on the left? How come you don’t see a lot of honest gloating out there? In fact, a Politico story today says it’s over for the Democrats 2010. They’re on their own, it’s over, it’s history. And try this. The Politico is just so disappointed. They are saddened to have to write this story by Alex Isenstadt.

‘Democrat health bill foes escape payback. ‘Dem Health Bill Foes Escape Payback.’ Every anti-Obamacare Democrat is winning. ‘After 34 House Democrats voted against the health care bill in March, liberal groups and their allies in the labor movement vowed to exact revenge. The threats ranged from crippling primary election challenges to a withdrawal of support for some of the offending lawmakers. In a few cases, activists even went so far as to say they would run third-party candidates against the Democrats in November. But five months later, the group of 34 has emerged from primary season not much worse for the wear. Every one of the 30 lawmakers who voted against the health care bill and is seeking another term won re-nomination.’

So where is Bill Clinton? (doing impression) ‘Heh, heh. If you want to hold onto your seat, you gotta vote for this health care bill! That’s why we lost the House back in 1994, because, people, we didn’t pass health care. You gotta pass health care. If you don’t pass health care, you have no provider coming back here.’ So they marched off the cliff like a bunch of lemmings following Clinton, except Clinton’s got angel wings. He keeps flying; they hit the beach. Meanwhile, these 34 who are told, ‘You are history. You may as well get ready, Al Capone is coming for you,’ are winning. Democrats opposing their own president are winning, and we’re told that the Tea Party ascension is causing glee on the Democrat side. This is the real reason we keep getting stories from the Democrat media complex decrying the failure of the Obama army.

We’re getting these stories, ‘Where is the Obama army?’ Remember we were going to have all these people on the Internet and in the streets? They were going to be flooding the country and whatever Obama wants is gonna get passed. But these people can’t even punish wayward Democrats. What kind of revolutionary discipline is this? Castro at least was able to put his political prisoners in jail. But the dissidents, the Democrat dissidents going up against the regime are winning. They’re winning! And, meanwhile, we’re being told that Christine O’Donnell’s got a lot of baggage and we should look the other way and let a mosque be built at Ground Zero. We’re told Christine O’Donnell’s got baggage, character rectitude.

What about Obama? Character rectitude? Confiscating one-sixth of the US economy with the health care business, destroying the US economy? Can we talk character? If you don’t want to talk character rectitude, can we talk policy? I’m gonna tell you something: There are a bunch of Democrats in this country who are willing to join the Tea Party in stopping the direction the Democrats are taking this country. Slowly but surely, Washington Republicans are starting to see it. They’re still rebelling against it. They’re still fighting it. But it’s clear what’s going on: It’s Washington versus the country. Obama and the Democrats are governing against the will of the people. Professional politicians and pollsters see them getting away with it. Obama is not being punished by it. He’s out there playing golf, he’s out there smoking, he got a good tan. I thought these stories on Boehner were actually stories on Obama ’til I read further.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: We all know what’s wrong with RINOs. We all know the essentials, the basics. But there’s something else. When these RINOs get in, the Senate or the House — let’s focus on the Senate — and when they vote with the Democrats, they tarnish the whole brand of Republicanism and they make it much more difficult for conservatives to exact lines of demarcation. If we’re going to have a liberal in the Senate, let’s have a genuine liberal who is going to call himself one rather than a Republican who’s gonna pretend to be a conservative and then votes liberal and confuses everybody else. Fred Barnes has a piece out there today listing Castle’s problems, why he lost, and one of the problems was in a primary he wouldn’t even deign to call himself a conservative. Okay, for once he got honest. What’s he supposed to do, lie about it? Act like a conservative just to win? At least he was honest and didn’t try to tell people he’s something that he’s not. Fred Barnes, his magazine was all against O’Donnell, the Weekly Standard was. I mean they were all over the place, anti-O’Donnell, building up Castle. Fred’s got this piece out on why Castle blew it. Fred’s one of the two editors there, Bill Kristol is the other. I don’t personally know what Fred wrote about this bylined or not. I’m just quoting his piece today: ‘Why Castle Lost.’ He’s got some good points in it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Eric in Bloomington, Delaware, welcome to the EIB Network, sir. Great to have you with us.

CALLER: Thank you, Rush. Like I tell my sons, you’re one of the best people on the radio. So flattery should get me everywhere.

RUSH: Thank you very much, sir, I appreciate that.

CALLER: Okay. I’m calling ’cause I live in Delaware and I voted for Castle every election, you know, to keep the Republican in because we want a Republican in there, but after he voted for cap and trade and I wrote him a letter, e-mailed him, and he sent me a form letter saying why he was for it, it’s like he didn’t really even care. And he’s voted for stem cell. That’s why I supported Christine O’Donnell. At least I know what I’m getting, and I’m not gonna get stabbed in the back by their vote.

RUSH: I’m glad you mentioned it. You know, cap and trade, that’s not just a piece of legislation. That is a sledgehammer to freedom. It is going to boost the cost of the fuel of freedom beyond people’s ability to afford it. And therefore their freedom is going to be lost. Energy prices via taxes would skyrocket, which means much less freedom. You know, oil is the fuel of the engine of freedom. The more expensive you make every carbon transaction, the less freedom, on purpose, for a bogus reason that we are destroying the planet, that there is global warming. People know it’s all bogus. So when you have lamebrain, mind-numbed Republicans supporting this for whatever insane reason, I’m sorry, the electorate is sophisticated enough today that they are not going to support it just because there’s some R behind it, the name of somebody who happens to live in Delaware in the Northeast. It’s not an excuse anymore.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I tell you, the Tea Party this election cycle has been amazing. It has transformed a lot of boring, hardworking American men and women, moms and dads, grandfathers, grandmothers into a bunch of racist, homophobic, Islamophobic hatemongering insurgents who want their country back. It’s a great thing. Media Tweak of the Day. Wait ’til you see what they do with that.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Robert ‘Fibbs,’ the White House press secretary today in his daily briefing. ‘Jacob’ Tapper, ABC, says, ‘Christine O’Donnell, who won the Delaware Senatorial primary for the Republicans, in 2008 said that then Senator Obama was so liberal that he’s anti-American. Does the White House have any comment on that?’

GIBBS: Look, I mean, last night showed that there is a very vociferous debate going on inside the Republican Party for the hearts and minds of Republican voters. I think if you look at what people like Karl Rove or people like the state GOP chairman have said, the Republicans in Delaware nominated somebody that they don’t believe can win. I think words of the state party chair, ‘couldn’t be elected dogcatcher.’ I think comments like that [are] probably what led to her losing 2-1 in Delaware in 2008.

RUSH: All right. Now, there you have it. So here you have the White House press secretary, a partisan Marxist, quoting Karl Rove and a Republican state chairman to support the Obama cause. I mean, this Marxist opponent, this Coons guy in Delaware can just take snippets of video from Rove’s appearance last night on Hannity and make campaign ads out of it. The Jake Tapper exchange with ‘Fibbs’ continued.

GIBBS: Delaware… Yes. I’ve said this for about two years. There is, was two years ago, not just because of the collapse of something like Lehman two years ago today. There was a frustration in the electorate about where we were economically. That frustration, I think, in many ways is still in the electorate. I said — spoke about this after Massachusetts. I think that same type of frustration was there, and I have no doubt that it continues today. I don’t think anybody would tell you that there’s not a frustration particularly based on, uhhh, what has happened economically and — and where we are in that recovery, and — and, uh, the president shares, uhhh, in some of that frustration.

RUSH: Well, what the hell does that mean? You want me to translate that for you? What that means is Gibbs just blamed voter anger on Bush — and the president’s mad about it too, by the way. The president is mad at this economy. Of course he’s mad at it. The voters are mad at it. Yeah. Collapse Lehman Brothers? It’s the Bush economy. We’re all mad about that. What was the real choice in Delaware: A Marxist with a beard, Coons, or a Marxist without one, Castle? Anyway, let’s… Oh. Here’s Reuters: ‘Tea Party Win Hurts Republican Senate Chances,’ by John Whitesides. ‘A conservative ‘Tea Party’ favorite knocked off the establishment choice in Delaware’s Republican Senate primary election on Tuesday, dealing a blow to the party’s chances to recapture the U.S. Senate in November.’ Well, Reuters should be elated, but there’s no happiness in this story. There’s no joy in Reutersville as you read this story. This job is not about saving or creating jobs for Republicans. It’s about stopping the Obama agenda and saving the country.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Joe in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. When Snerdley tries to spell phonetically, you would not believe what words look like. Hello, Joe, how are you?

CALLER: Hi, Rush. It’s John in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

RUSH: See?

CALLER: I thanked Mr. Snerdley for letting me through, and it’s an honor and privilege to speak with you.

RUSH: You bet, sir. Thank you.

CALLER: I’d like to tell you why so many of us voted for Christine O’Donnell, and, secondly, how she can win. We all felt we had nothing to lose. A vote for Castle was just a vote for another Democrat.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: The Republican Party, the lamestream press — and sadly I will include Fox in this — is that for the weeks and months going up to the primary, they kept referring to Mike Castle as a moderate. If they believe he’s a moderate they have their heads in the sand. So, you know, a lot of people were just so frustrated with the party —

RUSH: Well, but that’s because northeastern Republicans and the GOP think moderates is what the American people want. Moderates, you know, they don’t offend anybody and they’re very temperate and they cross the aisle, they work together. You won’t find in the library ‘Great Moderates in American History.’ I will not find that book. But the Republican establishment thinks the American people wants people to cross the aisle, people to get along, want moderates, and that’s why they’re calling him a moderate. They think conservative is the dirty word in America. Liberal is the dirty word in America.

CALLER: Why they think it doesn’t matter, they’re dead wrong. If that’s the way they think.

RUSH: It is the way they think.

CALLER: Oh, it is.

RUSH: Don’t doubt me.

CALLER: And that’s why they lost yesterday. That’s why they lost.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: Secondly I’d like to tell you how I believe she can win this. If she and the party, and the party’s in quotes here can bring in Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Newt Gingrich, Sean Hannity and, yes, Rush, you to campaign for her, she’d be a shoe-in. Who can Chris Coons bring in, Obama?

RUSH: Well, now, let’s face it. If I went in there you wouldn’t need those other people.

CALLER: Yes. In lieu of them I would —

RUSH: (laughing)

CALLER: But also, I’ve been running some quick numbers here, and the numbers aren’t confirmed, but with the votes that she got yesterday from the Tea Party, if the party could just get back 40% of the Castle votes, only 40% of the independent, and a small number of Democratic defectors, I do believe that number would add up —

RUSH: Well, look, you’re right, you’re right, I’m going to tell you, remember in a two-man race of Marco Rubio and Meek, with no Charlie — Charlie Crist stays a Republican, loses the primary, Marco Rubio slam dunk. But with Crist in the race as an independent, this is what they all told us, in the polls, in a three-way race if Crist goes independent, third party, whatever, he wins. And guess what? The latest Fox News poll has Marco Rubio up by 16 in the three-way race. When we were all told that if Crist bolted the Republicans and went independent it was over, that Rubio had no prayer. So these people doing all this ‘telling us’ have a very poor track record. They don’t know what they’re talking about.

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RUSH: Here is Mark in New Jersey, great to have you on the EIB Network, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Hello, Mr. Limbaugh. Sir, you are on fire today.

RUSH: Thank you very much, sir, I appreciate that.

CALLER: Yesterday and today have been, in my humble opinion, even more excellent than your normal excellence in broadcast.

RUSH: Well, thank you. I appreciate that very much.

CALLER: Today, sir, at the start of your wonderful conservative flamethrower RINO roast you posed the question about where Karl Rove’s anger against O’Donnell possibly came from. Well, sir, Karl Rove worked for the Castle campaign for months behind the scene. Karl negotiated with the 9.12 Project trying to get them and O’Donnell to drop out of the race and support Castle. She and the 9.12 Project refused. I think there in and of itself reflects Rove’s anger.

RUSH: Now, I read something about this last night and I didn’t know whether it was accurate.

CALLER: Yes, sir.

RUSH: And you’re sounding like it’s —

CALLER: The 9.12 Project has it on their website, and there was also during the acceptance speech last night, one of the 9.12 Project members was on stage and made a brief comment.

RUSH: So Rove worked for the Castle campaign?

CALLER: Behind the scenes, yes, sir.

RUSH: And was negotiating with the 9.12 Project trying to get them and O’Donnell to drop out of the race?

CALLER: Absolutely, sir. May I ask you a question?

RUSH: Look, I read this, but I don’t remember where, and I didn’t see it attributed. How do you know this?

CALLER: If you will check the 9.12 Project’s website, you will find this information along with it being posted on Hot Air. Drudge had an earlier link to it. I don’t see it anymore. I haven’t looked recently.

RUSH: Is it someplace called the Freedomist, is that the last — where I saw it, it was said that sources at the O’Donnell victory party last night revealed to the Freedomist that in December of last year Rove met with Tea Party leaders in Dover, Delaware, trying to get them to cut a deal.

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: In which they would leave Mike Castle alone and not support O’Donnell.

CALLER: That’s correct. May I ask you a question, sir?

RUSH: Yeah, fire away. That’s what I’m here for.

CALLER: So you are a friend of Mr. Rove’s. He co-hosted your program, and I personally loved it that day. I was really on fire and fired up. He was great, I thought. Don’t you think, I mean, you’re the genius here, but don’t you think you should get him on air? He will answer your calls. And basically pound him face-to-face, so to speak, just as you’ve done here? I think Karl Rove has lost a ton of support and fans, and with just his last couple of appearances on Fox this has been the most disappointed I think I have ever been in him.

RUSH: I know that people across the country were shocked. Like I opened the program today, my e-mail — and I watched it last night, I was watching it — my e-mail lit up. I mean every e-mail account I have, subscribers to my website, my personal e-mail account, the public e-mail account, I mean it was lighting up in droves. People had not seen anything like it. It didn’t compute. It didn’t make any sense. I got an e-mail today from… asking me what I thought’s going on here. I don’t know. Like everybody else, I’m guessing.

CALLER: I’d like to say that I really have loved your brother, David’s, book. And if you’re serving it up today, sir, I’d like my RINO slightly rare. God bless you, Rush, and God bless America.

RUSH: (laughing) All right. Thanks, Mark, for the phone call.

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RUSH: West Fargo, North Dakota, Diane, welcome to the EIB Network. Great to have you here.

CALLER: Oh, my gosh, I can’t believe I’m actually talking to you after listening to you for all these years. I have recently become involved in politics with the last campaign. I was really disappointed with McCain when he didn’t go for the throat, and it seems like the Republicans don’t. And now they’ve got this lady who won, and they’re going after their own. It’s like mothers who eat their children. I mean, what the heck’s the matter with these guys? Why don’t they go after the Dems like the Democrats come after them?

RUSH: I’m going to go back to this dinner on Saturday because this subject came up. This would have been a great dinner to have on television. It really would have been. And you people would be stunned to know who was there if I was to give you the names. But this whole subject came up of McCain. You would have been stunned at who said what I’m gonna quote.

CALLER: Nothing would surprise me about these politicians.

RUSH: Well, we were all talking about why did McCain tiptoe around? One of the most vociferous, quote, unquote, criticisms of McCain was that: ‘I don’t think he really wanted to win it. You know what? I think he was so ticked off after not getting the nomination in 2000, he just wanted to get the nomination, he wanted to have it on his resume, but he really didn’t want to be president, really didn’t want to win it because he didn’t have the guts to campaign against the first black president.’ That’s what was said, that he didn’t have the guts.

CALLER: I don’t know if the first black president had anything to do with it. But it wasn’t just McCain. It seems like during the campaign is when I noticed it, but the Republicans just don’t seem to have the backbone to come out and say, ‘Well, you know, you did this and you did that.’ They don’t want to draw any blood and I don’t understand it.

RUSH: Yes, you do because I’ve told you.

CALLER: (laughing) Oh, I’m so sorry.

RUSH: I’ve told you why. They live and work in Washington. It is a place controlled socially and politically by liberal Democrats and the media. They want to get along. They want to have the status of mattering in that town, in that community.

CALLER: Well, you know what? It’s a shame that we have to have the females being voted in who are carrying their gonads around in their pockets.

RUSH: Exactly.

RUSH: Which we have made mention of I don’t know how many times, that the Republicans with the gonads are the women. The women are the ones in our party who are going after the liberal Democrats.

CALLER: Exactly.

RUSH: Now, don’t discount this business of the first black presidential candidate. I remember Bill Cunningham introduced McCain in Cincinnati at an appearance and he happened to call Obama by his middle name. And the McCain campaign fired the guy. ‘We’re not going to put up with that. We’re not going to tolerate this.’ What’s wrong? He calls himself Barack Hussein Obama. Don’t doubt me. There was a palpable fear, there is to this day in Republican Party circles, a palpable fear of criticizing Obama because the retort from the Obamaites is, ‘A-ha, you racist,’ and it is true.

CALLER: Well, they better get off the pot because I think some of these ladies are gonna show ’em how to run some politics.

RUSH: Well, that’s exactly right. They are. But there’s a fear, there’s a fear of being criticized by the ruling class in Washington. There is this fear of the charge of racism. And, look, we predicted this. Every criticism of Obama is said to be racist. And there are some people that don’t have the guts to try to put up with that and refute it. They don’t even want to deal with the charge. And so there is timidity, no question about it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Todd in New Castle, Delaware, welcome to the EIB Network. Great to have you here.

CALLER: Rush, it’s so good to talk to you, especially today. Mr. Snerdley told me to get right to it. I’d like to spend some time saying about how important you’ve been in my political life, but I’m going to skip that. As a Delawarean who’s a Republican, I’ve been watching this campaign pretty closely, and in the past I’ve always been a supporter of Castle. It was kind of like you said: I’d hold my nose while I vote for him. Well, in the last year or so I’ve been able to listen to some of his calls. He’s been doing these calls to his constituents.

RUSH: Yeah, these robo-calls out there, yeah.

CALLER: Yeah. Well, not robo-calls, but town hall calls where you get to ask him some questions. And one lady asked him she says, ‘You know, I’m having a really hard time. My husband’s lost his job, and we’ve had COBRA, but I don’t know how I’m going to pay my health care.’ His advice to her was, ‘Well, look at the state. We have some great programs to help you with your health care needs.’ Instead of telling her she should keep looking for a job, you’ll find a job, stay in the public sector, stay in the health care system, he tells her go to the state, which kind of tipped… You know, I think that tipped his hand greatly there as to his beliefs. Another lady calls and says that she’s part of the government spending, and the problem is the way these guys are spending money in Washington. His response to her was, ‘Well, I hear what you’re saying; what you’re saying is that the economy is bad, and we’re working on that in the Congress,’ which of course was not what she was saying. Of course he voted for all the spending bills and then runs these commercials that he’s some kind of fiscal conservative after spending —

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: — trillions of dollars.

RUSH: Right. And we’re bankrupt because of all the spending, yet he’s telling her, ‘Well, we got programs for you.’ That’s who they are. That’s who these people are. They direct people in government, the government gets bigger, the people that work in government have more power, the state grows, freedom is lost. That’s the game.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Well, that’s it. It’s the fastest three hours in media, and another exciting excursion into broadcast excellence is now in the can.

Folks, we need to really be excited about last night’s primaries and so many of these recent primaries as well. This is the start of taking back the Republican Party. This is how it begins. It’s the start of taking back our country one candidate, one election at a time. Congratulations to you.